Little Orchard Equine

08/12/2024

It’s that time of year!!! The barn is full of elementary kids! My favorite part to be honest.
However, when you send your horse off to a c**t starter, think there is some confusion about what you are paying for. First, everyone has different goals. Completely understandable. For that first 60/90 days. ( don’t even speak of 30, it’s just dumb for everyone) Maybe your goal is to ride them in Medora with your family this summer, maybe to send it to a specialist and go futurity, maybe you want to do lot of the training but that first ride just gives you nightmares, (understandable) maybe your goal is just to ride the thing this year. Remember though, that c**t starter is not just an insurance policy that you won’t end up in the hospital with a broken bone because the first ride didn’t go so well. Yeah, hopefully as a professional we are stickier than most, but that isn’t the job. Yet, time and time again it gets treated like that’s all it is, therefore should be cheap and quick.

Which is why it is a dying art.

We get asked all the time; how many rides will he have in 60 days? How long do you ride her every day? I can’t answer that. It isn’t a paid by the hour thing. It’s a feel thing. Sometimes Princess might be in the arena for 16 hours honestly, she might take many hours of sweat and hard core work, sometimes maybe I might put her away after 15 minutes. It cannot be said enough, horse training is a feel. Where does this feel come from? Yeah talent but gosh; years of work, years of learning, years of mistakes, of accomplishments, of tears, of frustrations, of sleepless nights. It’s knowing when to s***k on one, when to back off and just be quiet. When one needs to go outside and trot down the road, when it just isn’t ready to for a full arena just yet. It’s experience and guidance bottled up into an art that I can now put into your c**t. A pr***en that came in barely handled and turn him into something that can now be ridden, potential seen, and on his way to being a real member of society in just a couple months. That is what you are really paying for. If we say your c**t needs more time or give you advice on what do do with your young horse please please Listen. This is just the beginning of your horse’s education, most would argue the most important. We that like riding c**ts are here for the horse, or we would charge what we are really worth.
Ash

27/11/2024

Took advantage of the tolerable temperature and rode youngsters today.

Ride 3 on Boo and she decided she knows enough that she did not need help on the ground (thank you Brittany for being the best ground person!) Has forward mostly on demand, steering mostly figured out, and stopping.

Gooseberry had his 2nd ride. Walked 2 circles and practiced quiet dismount (last time he struggled but I suspect the saddle we used didn't fit quite right)

The bite sized sessions make a lasting impression on them so I can pick up where I left off in a week or 2

20/11/2024

Christmas is coming!

Do you have someone who is interested in riding lessons, but hasn't taken the step yet?

If so we have just the thing! Gift certificates for 2 or 4 lessons available now until December 31 2024.

These lessons will be redeemable from January 1 2025 until September 1 2025. Send us a message for details!

18/11/2024

Now that it is officially cold out, it is time to let riders know that riding lessons will continue through winter depending on temperature.

If the temperature drops below -20°C we will leave the horses outside and do theory instead (theory is important! Especially for riders planning to lease or own a horse in the future. We cover many topics!)

I will announce this to individual classes day of.

16/11/2024

Lunge horses with me!

Boo is beautifully forward and pretty good at a downward stretch at walk and trot. Lately she tends to have her hindquarters slightly to the middle of the circle which ends up with her nose to the outside. Anytime my rope gets tight while lunging her this is what is happening. She went on to have her 2nd ever ride afterwards and was very good. Starting to wean her off the groundperson

Goose was very distracted. First time lunging outside at this barn. First he wanted to eat, then look at friends, but he still tried real hard. You'll see he is quite wiggly and not able to hold himself super straight yet, which is normal for a horse his age. He also struggles with dropping his head at trot which is why I bring him into the in hand position to help him out. Often if he is struggling he will pit himself into the in hand position so I can help him.

Grateful for horses in training that don't mind working only once every week or so.

08/11/2024

Had a working equitation course set up this week for students, decided to have my youngsters explore it. Unsurprisingly only the bridge (mattress under a heavy green tarp) got a sideways glance. But it became an easy task once they saw me go over it. (As you can see Goose even tried it while free).

Other objectively scary obstacles I had were a rope gate, a wooden bull and a spear, and a small jump.

For anyone wondering, I do not do any "desensitizing" as you may see on the internet with people bringing things to the horses and making a deal of them. I simply treat everything as if we have seen it every day and the horses tend to accept that they are not a big deal. (Goose I raised so he is used to seeing whatever strange things I bring out. Boo has only known me since June, and yet they both react similarly).

03/11/2024

HORSES IN TRAINING…

You pay that hefty training bill for the month.

You look to have you horse in training as little as possible so it doesn’t break the bank.

You’re disappointed when after 30 days or 60 days or 90 days, there’s still more work to be done or the goal hasn’t been met. Worse yet, it looks good, you take the horse home and it unravels piece by piece. All that money “wasted”.

When you pay a trainer, that money isn’t paying for a result, it’s paying for someone’s skilled effort.

At least for me, when someone gets unhappy that their horse “isn’t fixed yet”, or comes “untrained” after it’s been home a while, makes the task of training horses for other people, discouraging. Discouraging because the efforts are being made, usually my best efforts that are filled with compassion, determination and lots of ruminating on how to fix complex issues a horse may have. Their disappointment becomes my failure basically. I know that’s not an actual truth but it’s never rewarding when someone is disappointed due to their own expectations.

Training a horse is NOT like being a mechanic on a car. Its not a tune up, it’s not the simple replacement of a part. It’s an animal with thoughts, feelings, emotions, habits, talents, etc. You don’t just program them, tune them up or replace a faulty part and send it back good as new.

You arent paying for results to happen within your timeline, you are paying for the time it takes to reach a desired result. The more complicated the project, the bigger the investment. The more baggage a horse has, the more effort it takes to unravel the mess. The bigger the goal, the greater the investment.

People send their horses to certain trainers because they want the outcome that trainer proves they can achieve. The problem is, people want that result in the shortest time frame possible because time, again, is money. It takes the time it takes to create the vision and time costs money. People who have a diy mentality, value the effort so much more when they themselves invest their own energy into a horse rather than just paying for it. I really feel that those who do it themselves, come to appreciate the efforts it takes far more than those who sign the check.

Be nice to your trainers, they work hard for you and your horse!

Written by: katy Negranti
Katy Negranti Performance Horsemanship

02/11/2024

Pony ride on Boo. She was struggling to figure out forward on our own and I didn't want to start trying to kick her forward or using the whip right away so we got help (thanks Brittany!). Boo was feeling pretty good about going forward, and very easy to stop off the breath already.

Also rode newly gelded Rain, testing out his confidence with little jumps, and it has definitely been a long time since I jumped 😅 koodos to my jumping students who can hold a soft 2-point and light seat for an hour long lesson.

28/10/2024

2nd time with a saddle. First time English saddle. Learned how to line up at the mounting block, and I sat on her briefly at the end of the session.

4 months pregnant so hopefully I get a few "actual" rides in before she tells me she is too pregnant and uncomfortable for ridden work. My other mares usually want me to stop riding around the 5 month mark.

18/10/2024

Happy Friday

06/10/2024

We had an awesome time with Smith’s Mounted Medieval Clinics on Saturday. Horses and humans learned new things and had fun. Looking forward to the next one!

Olivia on Sadie running at the quintain.
Video credit to Marko

30/09/2024

Exactly this! Sometimes the time in between sessions does more than the constant training!

As a Horse Trainer I am asked many times... "How long do you work each horse each day...?"

There is NOT a real answer to that. There just isn't and if you understood horses, you would agree to this. Some days I work the horses for an hour, sometimes 2, sometimes a half hour, sometimes only five minutes. Yes you heard me right, 5 minutes. Sometimes horses do NOT need hours and hours of training if done right.

If I know the horse is struggling with something, instead of harpooning on it all day long for hours, why not just BUILD THESE HORSES UP!?! 🙌

I have my own training style. I do my job and I do it very well. I promise you each horse gets exactly what they need. All my horses I have are extremely willing and do exactly what I ask. Even if its on their time. If you expect to work each horse the exact same way for each one, you need to rethink your training.

No I don't have a "training schedule," no I don't have to spend HOURS on my training horses. Some days I do, some days its just 10 to 20 minutes DEPENDING ON WHAT THE HORSE NEEDS! I am ME and can insure that I do a good job at what I do.

21/09/2024

As we enter the fall, and soon winter, hay production slows.

The unwanted horse ads start to appear.

“Beautiful pasture ornament available, very sweet and kind. Cannot be ridden. But only 6 years old so lots of life left!”

Or

“Retired senior horse. Very arthritic so only pasture sound. We love her but can’t justify keeping a horse we can’t ride. We also can’t keep weight on her and she costs too much to feed!”

There are not enough homes out there for horses that have health issues and are “less desirable” due to not being rideable.

Not saying it’s fair but it’s the reality.

If a person doesn’t love a horse enough to keep them through their retirement, expecting a stranger to do so does not make sense.

In fluke cases, sure you may find the unicorn retirement home that has no bad motives and actually intends to keep the horse until they pass.

But, the fact of the matter is that these types of horses are most valuable when sold to auction, usually for meat.

And if the person who lamed them or owned them into their senior years doesn’t care enough to take care of them for life, a stranger with no attachment to the horse isn’t particularly likely to.

Are there some incredibly generous and kind strangers who do this? Yes.

Are there enough of them to keep up with the “demand” of all of these unwanted horses? No.

Rather than rolling the dice and hoping that these unwanted horses will find a soft landing when they’re given away for free or cheap, consider what kindnesses are within your power to offer them.

1. You could keep them, because an unrideable horse generally costs the same as one who is ridden.

2. If you’re unwilling to do so because of their health issues and lack of “usefulness”, you could give them a humane ending with euthanasia.

Horses don’t fear death like people do. They live in the present moment. They don’t spend time worrying about their mortality or if there’s life after death.

So, if that present moment is a miserable existence, that is what their life is. Miserable. That is their reality.

If all they know in the moment is suffering, that’s what their life is comprised of.

Passing off the unwanted horse to be someone else’s issue in lieu of giving them a humane ending may feel more noble because it extends longevity of life, but it doesn’t factor in quality.

A horse being passed off from home to home, always a second class citizen due to being unrideable, isn’t a kindness.

It is humans continuously evading accountability for the care of the horse and instead passing the horse off to be someone else’s problem.

It is the humans feeling morally superior for doing so because they think keeping the horse alive is a kindness.

Even if the life is no life to live.

Or even if it is condemning the horse to be taken to the auction and sold to a kill buyer.

Love your horses enough to love them through their lack of rideability or at least give them a humane end if it’s between that and rolling the dice and throwing them into a market that is already flooded with unwanted horses.

Horses should hold value whether they’re rideable or not but currently, that’s largely not the case.

Rather than ignoring that fact, people need to be honest with themselves about what they’re actually doing.

What their choices put their horses at risk of.

Let your elderly horse pass in the home they’ve known for so long instead of throwing them out into a new environment as soon as they can no longer be ridden.

Give your lesson horses the gift of retirement after they’ve kept your business afloat instead of pawning them off when they are no longer useful.

Or give them the gift of a good death instead of just making them someone else’s problem.

If you do not love the horse that you’ve spent years bonding with enough to keep them through their “less desirable” stages of life, why would a stranger be more likely to do that for you?

Winter is coming. Don’t throw your damaged horses to the “wolves.”

Part of owning horses is caring about them enough to give them a good end.

If you feel like a bad person for euthanizing them because you know retiring them would be the kinder option, that’s likely a sign that you should buck up and keep them into retirement.

The answer is not playing Russian roulette with your horse’s quality of life.

Stop pawning old and lame horses off onto other people.

There is not the amount of kind and caring homes available that people are making it out to be.

18/09/2024

**t

30/08/2024

Looking to try something new with your horse?
Do you like the idea of jousting and swinging swords? Or maybe you like mounted games?

If any of these sound like you sign up for our clinic! Located right in Lethbridge!

Auditors welcome! ($10 if you want lunch included)

27/08/2024

We still have room for some new students. Message to reserve your spot

It's time to register for lessons beginning in September! Lessons begin Monday September 9.

Beginner group lessons ($60, 1 hour long)
Monday 4:30
Tuesday 4:30
Thursday 4:30

Intermediate group lessons ($60, 1 hour long)
Monday 5:30
Monday 6:30
Tuesday 5:30
Tuesday 6:30 (jump lesson. Must have own horse)
Wednesday 4:30
Wednesday 5:30
Thursday 5:30
Thursday 6:30

Private lessons ($75, 1 hour)
Fridays

I can also potentially come to your facility. In which case I will charge $75 + mileage.

Book now to secure your spot, as they fill fast!

13/08/2024

It's time to register for lessons beginning in September! Lessons begin Monday September 9.

Beginner group lessons ($60, 1 hour long)
Monday 4:30
Tuesday 4:30
Thursday 4:30

Intermediate group lessons ($60, 1 hour long)
Monday 5:30
Monday 6:30
Tuesday 5:30
Tuesday 6:30 (jump lesson. Must have own horse)
Wednesday 4:30
Wednesday 5:30
Thursday 5:30
Thursday 6:30

Private lessons ($75, 1 hour)
Fridays

I can also potentially come to your facility. In which case I will charge $75 + mileage.

Book now to secure your spot, as they fill fast!

13/08/2024

On Saturday Little Orchard Equine participated in the Coaldale candy parade. We had a great time! Thank you to awesome helpers, drivers, walkers and riders, and of course thank you to great horses!

That concludes this years parade season. We will be back next year!

Did you see us there?